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Tony Cascarino’s Premier League guide
Arsenal
How they will finish
1st
Chelsea
2nd
Arsenal
3rd
Manchester United
4th
Everton
5th
Tottenham Hotspur
6th
Liverpool
7th
Manchester City
8th
Aston Villa
9th
Bolton Wanderers
Aston Villa
They can go well if Laurent Koscielny hits
the ground running, if Andrey Arshavin is
in the mood and provided they avoid the
injury problems of last season. Marouane
Chamakh will slot in nicely and keeping
Cesc Fàbregas is a huge boost
Player to watch
Laurent
Koscielny
Birmingham City
Surprise flops. Last term’s terrific success
was based on avoiding injuries, a great
goalkeeper and massive overachievement
from the back four and the likes of Lee
Bowyer. Everything went right; that won't
happen again. And I’m not convinced
Nikola Zigic will justify his big fee
Solid, strong and direct as usual but will do
worse than last season because they have
stood still while rivals have improved. They
haven't done anything in the transfer
window so far, which is astonishing, but
they will be competitive anyway
Watch
Ashley
Young
Worry
Stiliyan
Petrov
6th
Villa have finished
sixth for the past
three years and
six times in the
past 12 seasons
Player to worry about
Manuel
Almunia
Blackburn Rovers
Watch
Cameron
Jerome
Blackpool
Everything is against them staying up and
they could easily finish with the worst
points tally in Premier League history but
I’m going to be bold and say they’ll pull
off a miracle thanks to their home form. A
bad start and it’s curtains
Very quiet this summer, they need
the prospective takeover to happen
so Sam Allardyce can have money to
spend. Regardless, they will be hard
to beat. The continued success of the
Christopher Samba and Ryan Nelsen
centre-back partnership is vital
Worry
Ben
Foster
Worry
Morten Gamst
Pedersen
Watch
Nikola
Kalinic
Bolton Wanderers
Safe, easily. They improved under Owen
Coyle, he’s got them heading in the right
direction, the team are sound and I love
the signing of Martin Petrov, who is
potentially the best signing of the
summer if he can stay fit
Worry
Brett
Ormerod
Watch
Charlie
Adam
Worry
Johan
Elmander
Watch
Martin
Petrov
10th Sunderland
11th
Stoke City
12th
Blackburn Rovers
13th
Fulham
14th
West Ham United
15th
Newcastle United
16th
Wolverhampton Wanderers
17th
Blackpool
18th
Birmingham City
19th
Wigan Athletic
Trophies in Arsène Wenger’s first
seven years at Arsenal
First
8
In second
seven
3
Fact
Last season was the
first since 2004-05 that
they were neither
promoted nor relegated
Fact
Fact
Last season’s average
attendance at Ewood
Park was the highest
since 2002-03
If Ormerod plays
he will have
represented the
club in each of the
top four divisions
10th
20th West Bromwich Albion
Prediction 2nd
8th
18th
12th
17th
9th
Chelsea
Everton
Fulham
Liverpool
Manchester City
Manchester United
Newcastle United
It’s stating the obvious but they’ll be
the team to beat again and should be
better than last season with Michael
Essien back and Yossi Benayoun
arriving to solve the problem right
side of midfield. And plenty of cover
so can cope with injuries
Watch
Michael
Essien
Fact
Worry
John
Obi Mikel
Only Wayne Rooney,
Cristiano Ronaldo and
Didier Drogba have scored
more Premier League
goals than Frank Lampard
in the past five years
It’s a big ask for Mark Hughes. The fans
won't accept the physical style he
produced at Blackburn but he hasn’t
got a Manchester City budget to
produce a flair-filled side. Solving
Fulham’s habitual poor away form will
be crucial
I expect great things. They were as
good as anyone in the second half
of the campaign in 2009-10 once
their injury glut had cleared. If all
the key players are fit, I think they
will spring a shock and qualify for
the Champions League
Watch
Leon
Osman
Fact
Worry
Tim
Howard
Only Chelsea and
Manchester United
accrued more points in
the second half of last
season than Everton
Watch
Damien
Duff
Hard to say how they’ll do because
they have such potential going
forward when everyone is fit but
there are question marks. Joe Cole
could be their greatest asset or
biggest liability. I expect a cautious
style under Roy Hodgson
Watch
Fernando
Torres
Worry
John
Paintsil
The club played 63 matches last season
but only 45 the previous campaign
Fact
63
09-10
08-09
Their bench will be brilliant.
But the first XI? Like last season, not sure
they will gel. They’ll get goals but Roberto
Mancini is setting them up for a defensive
counter-attacking style that’s not a
title-winning formula
Worry
Joe
Cole
Since promotion in
1962, Liverpool
have finished
outside the top six
only five times
Watch
Carlos
Tévez
Fact
I certainly don’t think they’ll win it. There’s a
lack of depth in midfield and though there
are a lot of goal threats, such as the exciting
and instinctive Javier Hernández, they are
still hugely reliant on Wayne Rooney
Worry
Gareth
Barry
Watch
Javier
Hernández
4th
This is the fifth
successive
season that City
are away on the
opening day
45
Worry
Rio
Ferdinand
The club have
finished second four
times in the past two
decades and each
time have won the
title the next season
They may be
small but this is
the club’s tenth
successive
top-flight
season
With a team full of scrappers they’ll do just
about enough to survive but it’ll be a quiet
and anticlimactic year after last season’s
spectacular success. Talented and troubled
Joey Barton, the forgotten man, is due a
strong campaign
Watch
Joey
Barton
Fact
Worry
Sol
Campbell
The club have not
beaten Manchester
United, their first-game
opponents, at Old
Trafford since 1972
1st
4th
13th
6th
7th
3rd
15th
Stoke City
Sunderland
Tottenham Hotspur
West Bromwich Albion
West Ham United
Wigan Athletic
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Very predictable. They will be just
what they were in the past two years:
big, strong, direct, formidable at
home but hit and miss on the road. No
real individual weak points, it’s all
about the collective with them
Watch
Matthew
Etherington
Fact
11th
Worry
Dave
Kitson
Despite their physical
reputation, nine teams
had a worse disciplinary
record last term
Frustratingly inconsistent last time
and carried by the goals of Darren
Bent — and it’s hard to see that
changing in 2010-11. Nailed-on
mid-table fodder who will conjure up
the odd impressive result without
doing enough to challenge for Europe
Watch
Darren
Bent
Darren Bent’s
24 league goals
were worth
19 points last term
— the difference
between mid-table
and relegation
10th
Sure to challenge for the top four
again but might fall just short, perhaps
distracted by Europe, though there’s
plenty to like about them. Exciting
talent everywhere you look but
Jermain Defoe has to become a better
team player when he’s in a dry spell
Watch
Gareth
Bale
Worry
Steed
Malbranque
League
goals
Points
24
19
5
5th
I fear they will be a real letdown, just
as they were at this level two years
earlier. Nice football, yes, but where’s
the firepower? I can’t see Roberto Di
Matteo keeping them up without
some dramatic new signings
Worry
Jermain
Defoe
Watch
Chris
Brunt
Defoe scored
red five times in
36 second-half
-half minutes
against Wigan
gan last
Novemberr but managed
only five league
eague goals in
the second
d half of the
season
Fact
Michael Essien
20th
Worry
Scott
Carson
The “great escape”
season of 2004-05 is
the only campaign in
the past ten years when
the club were not
promoted, relegated or
in the play-offs
Avram Grant reminds me of
Sven-Göran Eriksson: I often wonder
what he actually does. West Ham
have enough to stay up but won’t do
much to excite the fans and the
defence is unconvincing but at least
Scott Parker’s still there
Watch
Mark
Noble
Worry
Thomas
Hitzlsperger
Grant is the club’s Managers
fifth manager in
Years
nine years. They
only had five
Managers
managers in 87
years between
5
1902 and 1989
14th
They worry me. Titus Bramble is a big
loss to a defence that shipped a
frightening number of goals at times.
If they are to stay up, Mauro Boselli,
their big summer signing, has got to
find the net on a regular basis
Watch
Mauro
Boselli
5
9
Years
87
79
Worry
Gary
Caldwell
The side conceded
79 goals last season:
the joint-seventh
worst defensive
record in Premier
League history
A nice tight, hungry unit, there are lots of
positives at Molineux and they have made
a couple of shrewd summer signings, not
least Steven Fletcher. I enjoyed watching
him last year and he should take some of
the pressure off Kevin Doyle
Watch
Steven
Fletcher
Sylvan Ebanks-Blake scored 25 times in
the Championship in 2008-09 but only
twice last season, one a penalty
Championship
goals
Last season
19th
Worry
Adlène
Guedioura
16th
25
2